Climate change

The Guardian -   A stunning heatwave that shattered records in the US west is threatening to rapidly melt the sparse snowpack and ramp up wildfire risks in the seasons ahead.

March has already been historically hot, but the early onset of summer weather across the region may be here to stay. There is little reprieve in forecasts, which show more heat records may fall this spring.

Extreme heat is exceptionally dangerous, especially so early in the year, when bodies and systems are not prepared for it and when it lingers over a long period of time. This heatwave is also posing significant threats to the water supply. After one of the warmest winters in the west, the snow that feeds streams, reservoirs and soil moisture as it melts through the summer season is already dismally scarce in key watersheds.

“Anomalous warmth and historic snow drought will still lead to ecological and wildfire-related impacts as soon as this spring, and possibly wider water challenges by late summer and beyond,” climate scientist Daniel Swain said in a post about the heat.

His primary concern is in the interior west, especially the Colorado River basin, which could face “water supply and hydroelectric shortfalls, an early and intense fire season, and ecosystem degradation”. The unprecedented heat event pushed temperatures between 20 to 30F higher than average across the region, with some areas seeing spikes up to 40F higher than normal.

The Guardian -  The US has caused an eye-watering $10tn in global damages to the world over the past three decades through its vast planet-heating emissions, with a quarter of this economic pain inflicted upon itself, new research has found.  By being the largest carbon emitter in history, the US has caused greater harm to worldwide economic growth than any other country, ahead of China, now the world’s largest emitter that is responsible for $9tn in GDP damage since 1990, according to the findings of the paper.

“These are huge numbers,” acknowledged Marshall Burke, an environmental scientist at Stanford University who led the new work. Burke added that the US has “a lot of responsibility, our emissions have caused damage not only to ourselves, but pretty substantial damage in other parts of the world”.